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JOINT STATEMENT BY PRIME MINISTER LEE HSIEN LOONG AND PRIME MINISTER DATO' SRI MOHD NAJIB TUN ABDUL RAZAK AT THE SINGAPORE-MALAYSIA LEADERS' RETREAT ON 24 MAY 2010

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak met in Singapore on 24 May 2010 for the Leaders’ Retreat. Both Leaders expressed their satisfaction at the present state of relations and cooperation between the two countries. Both Leaders discussed a wide of range of bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest, in particular enhanced bilateral relations and new initiatives for cooperation.

Both Leaders are pleased to note that in furtherance to the spirit of enhanced bilateral relations, the Singapore Consulate-General in Johor Bahru started operations since 4 January 2010.

Both Leaders are pleased to announce that as a result of the various discussions undertaken by the Joint Ministerial Committee on Iskandar Malaysia (JMC), the following have been agreed so as to increase connectivity between the two countries:-

• Cross-border scheduled bus services will be doubled with the introduction of 8 new additional routes (4 from each side) between Pasar Bakti and Larkin in Johor and the two Integrated Resorts, Boon Lay, Yishun, Newton and Changi Airport in Singapore; and
• Cross border taxi services will also be liberalised with taxis being allowed to pick up and drop off passengers from any location on the domestic leg of that journey, instead of only at the designated taxi terminals.
• The Malaysian Automated Clearance System had been implemented to facilitate cross-border immigration clearance for frequent travellers between the two countries;
• A Cross Border Land Checkpoints Committee had also been formed to facilitate cooperation on operational management of cross-border traffic;
• On tourism, both countries are looking into the possibility of twinning an eco-tourism product;
• To share experiences and jointly develop plans for river cleaning in line with the efforts being undertaken in Iskandar Malaysia; and
• To optimise further existing road connectivity between Malaysia and Singapore, in particular through increased utilisation of the Second Link. To this end, the two Leaders have agreed that the toll charges for the Second Link will be significantly reduced on both sides. The reduced toll charges will be announced within a month.
• Both Leaders also discussed issues arising from the Points of Agreement (POA) on Malayan Railway Lands in Singapore and reached an understanding to move the issues forward. In this regard, the POA shall be supplemented by new terms and conditions to maximise the full potentials of the MRA Lands in Singapore. To that effect, both Leaders agreed to undertake the following steps:-
• The Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) station will be relocated from Tanjong Pagar to the Woodlands Train Checkpoint (WTCP) by 1 July 2011. Malaysia would co-locate its railway CIQ facilities at WTCP. Singapore would facilitate the relocation to the WTCP and ensure bus service connectivity from the KTMB Station at WTCP to a nearby MRT Station for the convenience of train passengers.
• A company known as M-S Pte Ltd will be established as soon as practicable but not later than 31 December 2010 with Malaysia’s 60% held by Khazanah Nasional Berhad and Singapore’s 40% held by Temasek Holdings Limited.
• The three parcels of land in Tanjong Pagar, Kranji and Woodlands and three additional pieces of land in Bukit Timah (Lot 76-2 Mk 16, Lot 249 Mk 4 and Lot 32-10 Mk 16) will be vested in M-S Pte Ltd for joint development, which in turn, could be swapped, on the basis of equivalent value for pieces of land in Marina South and/or Ophir-Rochor. Both sides will conduct their respective valuations and Prime Minister Lee will visit Kuala Lumpur within a month with a proposal for the land swap for Malaysia’s consideration.
• The transfer of the said land parcels to M-S Pte Ltd will take effect at the time when KTMB vacates Tanjong Pagar Railway Station (TPRS).
• A rapid transit system link between Tanjung Puteri, Johor Bahru and Singapore aimed at enhancing connectivity between the two countries will be jointly developed. The rapid transit system link will be integrated with public transport services in both Johor Bahru and Singapore. For the convenience of commuters, the rapid transit system link will have a single co-located CIQ facility in Singapore with the exact location to be determined later. It is targeted that the proposed rapid transit system link will be operational by 2018. Thereafter Malaysia may consider to relocate the KTMB Station from Woodlands to Johor.

Both Leaders agreed to task a joint implementation team, to be led by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Malaysia and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore to further discuss the implementation details, which among others, would include as follows:-

• establishment and the framework governing the M-S Pte.Ltd;
• rapid transit system connectivity between Johor Bahru and Singapore; and
• co-located CIQ in Woodlands Train Checkpoint.

The joint implementation team will complete its works by 31 December 2010.

The outcome reached by the joint implementation team on the matters discussed should be reflected in a written instrument to be signed by both countries upon approval from their respective Governments.

Both Leaders agreed that the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station Passenger Terminal building would be conserved given its historical significance and would be a centerpiece for the new proposed development on the site. In addition, the old Bukit Timah Railway Station building at Blackmore Drive can also be conserved.

Both Leaders also discussed bilateral cooperation in the joint iconic project in Iskandar Malaysia. The Leaders support the “live work play” wellness township concept proposed by the Joint Ministerial Committee on Iskandar Malaysia (JMC) which will offer holistic wellness services and facilities. The proposed iconic project will involve a sizeable development of up to 500 acres of land, designed to be vibrant, culturally distinctive, yet socially harmonious and environmentally friendly. A unique feature of the proposed iconic project will be the encapsulation of “wellness” within activities throughout the township, alongside the integration of traditional healing methods, complementary alternative medicine and modern treatments. Both Leaders agreed that Khazanah Nasional Berhad and Temasek Holdings Limited will form a 50-50 joint venture company to undertake the development of the iconic wellness township project in Iskandar Malaysia which would involve the participation of private sectors from both countries. Both Leaders look forward to the launching of the project within a year.

Prime Minister Lee informed Prime Minister Najib Razak that upon the expiry of the 1961 Water Agreement, Singapore would hand over the waterworks under the 1961 Water Agreement to the Johor water authorities free of charge and in good working order.

Prime Minister Lee and Prime Minister Najib Razak expressed satisfaction that the arrangements relating to the POAwould facilitate resolution of the issue which has been outstanding for more than 19 years. Both Prime Ministers reaffirmed their commitment towards further strengthening bilateral relations and mutual collaboration in various areas.

Message from the Blood Bank

Dear B Blood Donors, your type is needed urgently. Please help and donate at Bloodbank@HSA this week. Please call 62200183 for more info. Thank you.

Geylang Serai rojak stall owner charged

Retrieved April 27, 2010, from http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC100427-0000059/Geylang-Serai-rojak-stall-owner-charged

The National Environment Agency (NEA) is taking court action against the licensee of the Geylang Serai Rojak stall, Sheik Allaudin Mohideen, whose contaminated rojak claimed the lives of two people last April.

NEA says the hawker faces three charges: One of selling food unfit for human consumption under Section 15 of the Sale of Food Act and two counts of failing to keep the fridge tray and chopping board at the stall clean under the Environmental Public Health (Food Hygiene) Regulations. The case will be heard on May 11.

A Difficult Path in Goldman Case

Binyamin Appelbaum. (2010). A Difficult Path in Goldman Case. International Herald Tribune. Retrieved April 22, 2010 from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/business/20sec.html?src=me&ref=business

WASHINGTON — In accusing Goldman Sachs of defrauding investors, regulators are not only taking aim at a company with deep pockets and a will to fight — they are also pursuing an unusual claim that could be difficult to prove in court, legal experts said.

Rather than asserting that Goldman misrepresented a product it was selling, the most commonly used grounds for securities fraud, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a civil suit filed Friday that the investment bank misled customers about how that product was created. 

It is the rough equivalent of asserting that an antiques dealer lied about the provenance, but not the quality, of an old table. 

To a layperson, the case against Goldman may seem clear cut. 

After all, investors did not know some information about the product that they might have considered vital, and they lost $1 billion in the end. But the rules that govern these kinds of transactions are not so plain. 

Several experts on securities law said fraud cases like this one, which focuses on context rather than content, are generally more difficult to win, because it can be hard to persuade a jury that the missing information might have led buyers to walk away. 

They added, however, that the strength of the S.E.C.’s case is impossible to gauge until the agency discloses more of the evidence it has assembled. So far it has provided only a sketch. 

The stakes are huge. The S.E.C., battered by its failure to identify or prevent several major frauds in recent years, is eager to re-establish its credibility as an enforcer. But in choosing such a difficult battlefield, the commission also risks losing a case at a time when it is trying to re-establish its reputation as a tough watchdog. 

Goldman’s sterling reputation, a foundation of its financial success, is also on the line. Rather than settling with the government, it has so far chosen to fight back. The company says it provided its investors with all the information required by law. It has also stressed that it sold the securities to financial firms that were sophisticated investors.

The commission’s core accusation is that while Goldman provided to those firms a detailed list of the assets contained in a security it built and sold in 2007, it concealed the role of John Paulson, a hedge fund manager who worked with Goldman to pick what assets went into the security. Mr. Paulson then placed bets that the security would lose value. 

In essence, the buyers bet that housing prices would go up, while Mr. Paulson bet that prices would fall. 

Goldman was not legally required to provide any information to the investors, because Goldman found the buyers without offering them on the open market. But for any information that Goldman chose to provide, it was required by law to give a complete and accurate account. 

Goldman outlined its likely defense arguments in two letters sent to the S.E.C. in September in response to a notice from the agency that the company was under investigation and could be sued. 

In the letters, Goldman’s lawyers at Sullivan & Cromwell wrote that the company Goldman hired to manage the deal, ACA Management, was “no mindless dupe that could be easily manipulated.” Furthermore, the letters said that the downturn of the housing market was not a foregone conclusion, and that it was therefore misleading for the S.E.C. to consider the transaction through the lens of “perfect hindsight.” 

The letters went on to argue that, contrary to the S.E.C.’s assertions, Goldman disclosed all information about the deal that was material. In particular, the letters drew a sharp distinction between information about the security, which the company said it provided in full, and information about Mr. Paulson’s role. 

The second letter said, “It is this concrete information on the assets — not the economic interest of the entity that selected them — that investors could analyze and use to inform their decisions.” 

To win its case, the S.E.C. must prove that Goldman was not merely silent about Mr. Paulson’s role but actually gave investors the wrong impression, experts in securities law said. Then it must prove that the missing information was material, a legal term meaning that investors armed with that knowledge might have decided not to buy the product from Goldman, or to do so at a lower price.

Allen Ferrell, a law professor at Harvard, said the suit rested on an unusual definition of material information. 

“We normally think of material information as specific to the mortgages, not somebody’s prediction about the future course of macroeconomic events,” Professor Ferrell said. “So who cares whether Paulson is bullish or bearish? Whatever his personal opinion is about the future course of housing prices, the question is, did the investors have access to the underlying mortgages?”

But Donald C. Langevoort, a law professor at Georgetown University, said the case was consistent with other government efforts in past years to broaden the definition of material information. “The S.E.C. has long insisted that context is important,” Professor Langevoort said. “If you think of it more broadly in that way, this isn’t an unprecedented case.” 

Professor Langevoort cited as an example the commission’s 2003 settlement with 10 investment banks over accusations that their research departments were providing recommendations to investors without disclosing that favorable reviews were used to attract underwriting business from the companies issuing the stock. 

Adam C. Pritchard, a law professor at the University of Michigan, said that the S.E.C.’s focus on the construction of Goldman’s security reflected the increased complexity of financial instruments. Construction has simply become a more important part of the process, he said. But he added, “The basic idea that an undisclosed conflict of interest could be misleading is pretty much as old as stockbrokers.” 

In pursuing a new twist on an old idea, however, the S.E.C. has deeply unsettled the financial markets, opening the way for investors to file claims against banks that sold similar products, and forcing firms to reconsider their own liability. 

Richard W. Painter, a corporate law professor at the University of Minnesota, said the novel nature of the fraud charges made it important for the S.E.C. to disclose more details quickly, so that markets were not paralyzed by uncertainty over the boundaries. 

“The S.E.C. needs to step to the plate with very specific facts and make it clear what they think Goldman did that was wrong,” Professor Painter said.

The Straits Times: Stumped by what's classified

Source: The Straits Times 

I READ with interest Mr Kwan Jin Yao's letter last Thursday, 'Let students from JCs, polys, ITE interact to aid understanding', and agree national service (NS) is a life-changing requirement for today's youth. Unfortunately, the registration process leaves me bewildered as to the definition of 'classified' information and the potential ramifications for citizens.

I was advised to register my eldest son before Wednesday, a relatively simple process of accessing the NS portal and inputting the required information. I had to input my son's IC number and its date of issue, but I could not locate my son's IC to verify the issue date, so I could not continue. 

I called the IC registration department of the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) to ask for the date of issue but was told this was 'classified information' and could not be revealed to anyone, even my son the IC holder. I offered to go there in person, to no avail.

I was further advised to apply for a new IC, but this was not an option as the collection date would be beyond the stipulated date of response to the Ministry of Defence.

An ICA officer suggested I call Mindef and explain my predicament. This I did and spoke to a helpful individual who promptly passed on details to a senior officer and called me back within 10 minutes to say Mindef was trying to resolve the situation. A few hours later, it did so, sending me a special password with which I was able to log on to the NS portal and register my son.

More important, the implications of my simple request for what is considered 'classified' information could be far-reaching, affecting every citizen, as under current law, communicating any classified information 'unintentionally, recklessly or in any other way' is a crime punishable by a fine and prison sentence. This appears to apply to both the IC holder and the recipient.

What we thought was innocuous information regarding an IC issue date, if revealed 'in any form', could be construed as a criminal offence. Bearing this in mind, whenever presenting my IC for inspection, for example to security staff, I shall ensure that my thumb obscures this information. I hope my blood group is declassified as my thumb is not long enough to ensure complete anonymity. 

From this date, I will also carry with me disclaimer forms that I will insist are signed and notarised in triplicate should a copy of my IC be required, or retained, for example, in exchange for office lift passes, condominium access or bowling alley shoes.

Philip J. Williams

What do you think?

1. Is the classification of the said information necessary?
2. Do you think the ICA has a basis in not releasing the said information?
3. Do you think some personal information in general can be shared?
4. If yes, what kind of information can be shared and what kind should not be shared?
5. If no, why not?
6. What are the ramifications in sharing personal information?  
7. What is the tone used in this letter?

Nimble Agencies Sneak News Out of North Korea

By CHOE SANG-HUN

Published: January 24, 2010

Source: International Herald Tribune

 

SEOUL — For a journalist who helped break one of the biggest stories out of North Korea in the past year, Mun Seong-hwi keeps an extremely low profile. The name he offers is an alias. He does not reveal what he did in North Korea before his defection in 2006, aside from mention of a “desk job,” in order to protect relatives left behind.

Jean Chung for the International Herald Tribune

Sohn Kwang-joo, chief editor of Daily NK, in his office in Seoul.

Jean Chung for the International Herald Tribune

 

Ha Tae-keung, president of Open Radio for North Korea, talked to a North Korean refugee stringer in China from his office in Seoul.

He also maintains a wall of secrecy around his three “underground stringers” in North Korea, who he says do not know he works for Daily NK, an Internet news service based in Seoul and reviled by Pyongyang.

On Nov. 30, quoting Mr. Mun’s and other anonymous “sources inside North Korea,” Daily NK reported that, starting that day, the North Korean government would radically devalue its currency, requiring people to exchange their old bank notes for new at a rate of 100 to 1. Furthermore, there would be limit on how much of this old money people could turn in for new.

The report, which made headlines around the world and was later confirmed by South Korean officials, had far-reaching implications. It meant, among other things, that the North Korean government was cracking down on the country’s nascent free markets, wiping out much of the wealth private entrepreneurs had accumulated by trading goods at a time when the Communist government’s ration system was failing to meet its people’s basic needs.

“I take pride in my work,” Mr. Mun, a man in his early 40s with brooding eyes and a receding hairline, said in an interview. “I help the outside world see North Korea as it is.”

Daily NK is one of six news outlets that have emerged in recent years specializing in collecting information from North Korea. These Web sites or newsletters hire North Korean defectors and cultivate sources inside a country shrouded in a near-total news blackout.

While North Korea shutters itself from the outside — it blocks the Internet, jams foreign radio broadcasts and monitors international calls — it releases propaganda-filled dispatches through the government’s mouthpiece, the Korean Central News Agency.

But, thanks to Daily NK and the other services, it is also possible now for outsiders to read a dizzying array of “heard-in-North Korea” reports, many on topics off limits for public discussion in the North, like the health of the country’s leader, Kim Jong-il.

The reports are sketchy at best, covering small pockets of North Korea society. Many prove wrong, contradict each other or remain unconfirmed. But they have also produced important scoops, like the currency devaluation and a recent outbreak of swine flu in North Korea. The mainstream media in South Korea now regularly quote these cottage-industry news services.

“Technology made this possible,” said Sohn Kwang-joo, the chief editor of Daily NK. “We infiltrate the wall of North Korea with cellphones.”

Over the past decade, the North’s border with China has grown more porous as famine drove many North Koreans out in search of food and an increasing traffic in goods — and information — developed. A new tribe of North Korean merchants negotiates smuggling deals with Chinese partners, using Chinese cellphones that pick up signals inside the North Korean border.

These phones have become a main tool of communication for many of the 17,000 North Korean defectors living in the South trying to re-establish contact with their families and friends in the North.

Mr. Sohn, a former reporter with the mainstream daily newspaper Dong-A in Seoul, has South Korean “correspondents” near the China-North Korea border.

These volunteers, many of them pro-democracy advocates during their student years, secretly meet North Koreans traveling across the border and recruit underground stringers. The volunteers use business visas, or sometimes pretend to be students or tourists.

“It’s dangerous work, and it takes one or two years to recruit one,” Mr. Sohn said.

 

In the past year, the quality of the information these news services provide has improved as they have hired more North Korean intellectuals and former officials who defected to the South and still have friends in elite circles in the North, said Ha Tae-keung, a former student activist who runs Open Radio for North Korea and a Web site.

“These officials provide news because they feel uncertain about the future of their regime and want to have a link with the outside world, or because of their friendship with the defectors working for us, or because of money,” said Mr. Ha, who also goes by his English name, Young Howard.

All these news outlets pay their informants. Mr. Ha pays a bonus for significant scoops. Daily NK and Open Radio each have 15 staff members, some of them defectors, and receive U.S. congressional funding through the National Endowment for Democracy, as well as support from other public and private sources.

Recently, they have been receiving tips from North Koreans about corrupt officials.

“The fact that news comes out through civic groups like ours means that North Korean society is changing fast,” said Pomnyun Sumin, a Buddhist monk and chairman of Good Friends, a relief group based in Seoul whose newsletter broke the swine flu story last month.

Some informants have become so adept with technology that they send text-messages, audio files and photos to Seoul by cell phone, said Kim Heung-gwang, a former North Korean computer scientist who heads North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity, a group of defectors that runs a news Web site.

Bringing news out of North Korea is risky. Mr. Kim said that one of his informants was stopped last May while trying to smuggle out a video in a small camera hidden in a cosmetics bottle. She is believed to have killed herself in police detention, he said.

“You wonder whether they should let their sources take such risks,” Chang Yong-hoon, who covers North Korea for the mainstream news agency Yonhap, said at a recent forum on the news services. “They’ve produced as many erroneous reports as they have real scoops.”

Kang Chol-hwan, a former North Korean prison camp inmate who now writes for the mainstream daily Chosun, said there are “information brokers” in North Korea who sell exaggerated and fake news to outside media. Lee Chan-ho, a chief analyst at the South Korean government’s Unification Ministry, warned that the “flood of raw, unconfirmed reports” complicates the effort to understand the North.

Mr. Ha, of Open Radio for North Korea, conceded that point: “Because our sources have never been trained in journalism, exaggeration is a problem for us. Some demand more money for information. We try to cross-check our reports as much as possible.”

Mr. Mun of Daily NK sends his stringers 1,000 Chinese renminbi, or about $150, every two or three months. They call him once a week at a designated time. They find a place where they feel safe from the North Korean police patrolling with equipment that detects cell phone users, and dial. In Seoul, Mr. Mun hears the ring tone, then calls back and talks for about half an hour. After the call, his stringers hang up and hide their phones until the next call.

Recently, with so many developments in the North, they have been calling him at unscheduled times, for instance, when he was in the subway.

“I have to rush off and call back quickly,” Mr. Mun said. “If I don’t within five minutes, he’ll turn off and I’ll lose him.”

There is another strict rule.

“We don’t know, and never ask, each other’s real name,” Mr. Mun said. “That’s safer for them. Their safety is my biggest concern.”

Boy, 7, raises $113k for Haiti

From The Straits Times, 25 January 2010

LONDON - A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD British boy told on Sunday how he raised more than 50,000 pounds (S$113,000) in a day for survivors of the Haiti earthquake by doing a sponsored bike ride.

Charlie Simpson set out to collect just 500 pounds for a UN Children's Fund (Unicef) appeal by cycling five miles (eight kilometres) around his local park in London - but his efforts inspired hundreds of people to donate online.

He started his fundraising efforts after seeing shocking images of children being pulled alive from the rubble in the Caribbean nation. 'I just think it was quite sad when I saw the pictures on the TV,' said the youngster.

His mother, Leonora, helped him create a sponsorship form and said the document quickly spread around the Internet and the enormous sum was donated in one day. 'He really felt strongly about this and thought that something had to be done,' she said. 'But what started off as a little cycle round the park with his dad has turned into something a lot bigger than that and we can't believe it.

'I am extremely proud of our Charlie, he's done really well. He's worked hard and he's raised a phenomenal amount of money so we couldn't ask for anything more.' Donations from his JustGiving website go to Unicef, which is leading emergency relief efforts on water, sanitation, education and nutrition as well as supporting child protection.

Unicef said it was the first time anyone had collected 50,000 pounds in one day for the fund and the money would make 'a huge difference'. 'It's always heartwarming when any child starts to respond and there's something quite special about a child in the UK reaching out to the children of Haiti,' said spokesman Michael Newsome. -- AFP

Imagined MRT Network by anonymous

Is this really going to be the eventual network of MRT in Singapore. If so, then the usefulness of driving will truly be reduced! No more congestion.

H1N1 : Hysteria is the real danger!!!

By a blogger

In 1976, fearing the spread of a new strain flu, the US govt started to innoculate the population. The problem was the side effects of vaccine cause a higher death rate that the flu which was quite mild.

It appears the Mexican authorities have grossly overestimated the number of deaths due to the H1N1 virus and have cut the number of deaths from 176 to 101. President Obama said at a press conference to mark his 100 days in office that the primary concern is that the virus is new- if the was an old virus spreading in the same manner, the extra precautions would be unnecessary.

The hysteria over this flu which so far has proven quite mild has caused people to overcrowd emergency rooms all over the world and causing those with genuine health emergencies to wait. The economic negative impact threatens what appear to be a weak recovery.

In Egypt the plan to cull thousands of pigs has caused riots between Christian farmers and the police. The move makes no sense given the flu has not spread to Egypt and the virus is capable of human to human transmission which means killing all the pigs in Egypt will not do anything to stock the spread.

The mortality rate of those infected by H1N1 appears no worse than that of the common cold. The Chinese have started retaining Mexicans and quarantining them even though they showed no symptons of the flu. It looks like the fear surrounding the H1N1 is starting to cause more harm than the virus itself.

Federer smashed his racquet vs Djokovic Miami